Analysis: Steaminess Rating

Exactly how steamy is this story?

G

The story only lasts an hour, which doesn't leave the characters much time for things to get steamy. However, for all we know Mrs. Mallard's sister, Josephine, and Mr. Mallard's friend, Richards, have some kind of flirtation going on, on the side. (That's totally reading between the lines, though. But you have to wonder about that kind of thing when you've got unattached men and women wandering about an understated nineteenth-century drawing room.) In any case, Mrs. Mallard believes for most of the story that she's just become a widow, which means she's more focused on her own feelings and processing the news than being intimate with someone. She wants to be by herself.